Tea in International News
I've been following links to various stories and articles about tea this past week. I've tried to give a quick synopsis, so you'll know if you're interested before you click.
From Reuters, Cloud of Fear Hangs Over India's Ailing Tea Gardens: I've seen a few headlines in the past week or two, but this is the first time I actually followed through and read more. Evidently, several managers/owners of tea plantations in Assam have been murdered by workers. There is quite a bit of disrest and fear in the region. Some link this to failing sales of Assam, stating that Darjeeling is more popular in the west, and that the lack of money is keeping workers from being paid as well (or even paid at all). The bottom of the article presents more of the worker's side of the problem, pointing at the great disparity in living conditions.
A Teamailer posted the URL for an interesting article from the China Daily (this link goes to articles written in English). I did a search on "tea" in the China Daily and found several interesting articles and photos. I'm posting some of those I found below. All are from the past month, so they should be fairly recent.
Tea Street: This is the place to go when you're in Beijing because "with a big shining logo 'Beijing No 1 Tea Street' and a teapot sculpture at one end, the 1500-metre-long street is lined with numerous teashops and colourful signs." I've added this street to my travel wishlist. :)
Oh, and the city of Hongzhu (famed for longjing tea) would be nice to visit as well. Click through to this photo of a longjing tea processing contest.
For more on Hangzhou, here's an article on the Growing Problem of Top Green Tea. What's the problem? At the same time that longjing tea is more popular and pricey than ever, it "is facing a challenge because of the lack of professional tea farmers, said Wu Guowei, deputy head of Longwu Town in Xihu District in Hangzhou. The young generation of tea farmers refuse to learn traditional tea processing skills because the processing is considered drudgery, Wu said." Contrast this to the next article that argues for modernization . . .
Still Steeping in Time: this looks at changing times for tea farmers and workers, at government initiatives for co-operatives, and at the need for the general modernization of technology and management in the tea industry.
New Criteria Set for Food Safety: "China is working on a series of technical standards to minimize pesticide residues and other hazards in food and fabrics."
Kong Fu Tea Photo: black and white of a Chinese tea ceremony performer.
A second photo: Plantation Owners Examining Recently-harvested Tea Leaves.
From Reuters, Cloud of Fear Hangs Over India's Ailing Tea Gardens: I've seen a few headlines in the past week or two, but this is the first time I actually followed through and read more. Evidently, several managers/owners of tea plantations in Assam have been murdered by workers. There is quite a bit of disrest and fear in the region. Some link this to failing sales of Assam, stating that Darjeeling is more popular in the west, and that the lack of money is keeping workers from being paid as well (or even paid at all). The bottom of the article presents more of the worker's side of the problem, pointing at the great disparity in living conditions.
A Teamailer posted the URL for an interesting article from the China Daily (this link goes to articles written in English). I did a search on "tea" in the China Daily and found several interesting articles and photos. I'm posting some of those I found below. All are from the past month, so they should be fairly recent.
Tea Street: This is the place to go when you're in Beijing because "with a big shining logo 'Beijing No 1 Tea Street' and a teapot sculpture at one end, the 1500-metre-long street is lined with numerous teashops and colourful signs." I've added this street to my travel wishlist. :)
Oh, and the city of Hongzhu (famed for longjing tea) would be nice to visit as well. Click through to this photo of a longjing tea processing contest.
For more on Hangzhou, here's an article on the Growing Problem of Top Green Tea. What's the problem? At the same time that longjing tea is more popular and pricey than ever, it "is facing a challenge because of the lack of professional tea farmers, said Wu Guowei, deputy head of Longwu Town in Xihu District in Hangzhou. The young generation of tea farmers refuse to learn traditional tea processing skills because the processing is considered drudgery, Wu said." Contrast this to the next article that argues for modernization . . .
Still Steeping in Time: this looks at changing times for tea farmers and workers, at government initiatives for co-operatives, and at the need for the general modernization of technology and management in the tea industry.
New Criteria Set for Food Safety: "China is working on a series of technical standards to minimize pesticide residues and other hazards in food and fabrics."
Kong Fu Tea Photo: black and white of a Chinese tea ceremony performer.
A second photo: Plantation Owners Examining Recently-harvested Tea Leaves.
posted by Cindy W. | 3:05 PM
6 Comments:
You're a tea-mailer too? I was. I got banned for some reason never realy explained to me about 3 months ago. I haven't been able to join since, and neither the list owner or moderators will answer my mail. I wonder what's up.
It was a realy cool list. I've been seriously bummed about it ever since.
Anywho, how's the list fareing without me?
Hello! I am a tealover too! I really like your blog!
Thanks Hannah, nice to meet you! :)
For teamasterwannabe:
I'm not sure what happened -- the only banning offenses I know of are spamming the list or posting ads on non-ad days.
Did you try contacting the list owner directly via email (this is Janis, the woman behind Cat Tea Corner), or did you do it through yahoo groups? It could be a technical glitch with yahoo (not unheard of), and something is blocking your address. I've had that happen, where someone blocked everything from my service provider and a big chunk of my email never got to the intended people.
If you'd like her address, or if you'd like me to contact her on your behalf, send me some e-mail (make sure you remove the "no spam" parts of the address):
cindyNOSPAM@NOSPAMwambeam.net
Janis is a hatemonger and racist. Check out her editorial page on her website and you'll see (ethnic slurs, and links to ethnic cleansing sites, for example. She also provides a link to francesucks.com). You may have offended her.
I have thought for two days about whether to erase the above anonymous comment or let it stay. My first reaction was to get rid of this because I find anonymous-posting a bit cowardly, especially when a post accuses someone of pretty serious things.
Before just erasing, though, I wanted to check out Janis' web site to see if the accusations are true. I am surprised and troubled by what I found listed in her commentary/opinions links. I did not find any specific racism (criticism of a belief system or cultural values isn't automatically racist), however, I did find hate-filled rhetoric that is generally directed at liberals and democrats.
Let me state this here -- I am a card-carrying member of the ACLU. I am a liberal, and I greatly disagree with the commentaries at CatTea Corner. In fact, this will probably keep me from submitting further reviews to her Tea Guide. I no longer feel comfortable sharing my words with the other text on her web site.
However, just because she and I disagree politically, I will not rush to a judgement that she is racist or somehow an evil hatemonger. If you, dear anonymous poster, would like to dispute this, I ask that in any future comment you include a name and specific details, quotes, or links, to back up your assertion. If so, I will leave them here. If you post more reactionary comments anonymously, I will delete them.
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